Okay, I think I am near the finish of the previous update, so I'll write my thoughts:
- the beginning where you go on the ship is fantastic part. Great writing, great art etc.
- the island part is also awesome; The labirynth part can be frustrating due to "labirynth" part, but Dev thought about it and gave a skip after 3 failures;
- slime girl, yay!
- the battle and the scene with shark captain are super hot and probably my favourite one.
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And then it all goes to hell. There are way too many important things happening and they all happen at once:
- the hot snake statue puts us to sleep for multiple days;
- in a port city we are met with cultist girl (who is cute btw), who we are forced to take with us;
- we are then bombarded with info dump about gods that they are real, about being chosen ones etc etc;
- upon leaving the port we are pursued and almost caught by vengeful ex and we can take her back. Oh also cultists spills the beans about everything;
- we also learn about princess that hid on our ship, so now we have 3 brand new passengers with all three being pretty important characters plot-wise;
- and now our crew doesn't trust us.
And it all happens in the span of <15 minutes. It honestly feels as if the writer got changed midway through the development of the game. Anyway after that we are met with 3-4 side quests related to your companions and a main quest. And during these multiple weeks or even months we cannot interact with our ex or captured princess, or the cultist who went to live in your cabin. We have to continue the main quest first and foremost. I cannot discuss the underwater portion of the game, since I haven't played it much.
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Anyway I am not sold on the "Chosen One" storyline, most of the time it feels like a mediocre excuse. And here it is paired with groundbreaking tempo where everything happens all at once. If it's possible I would suggest to Dev:
- disperse the story a bit. Let the MC focus on pirating for a little more, before confirming that gods are indeed real.
- so this mean the whole cultist plot should become "Part 3";
- your ex should become central focus and "Part 2" of the game. During the time where you are trying to get the funds for your crew - so there won't be mutiny - she should be there constantly on your toes, trying (and failing) to catch you. It should go on for a little while, till the confrontation that would become finale of "Part 2" and the scene we currently got.
- the current side quest/loyalty missions should be a Part 2/Part 3 part of game. Either stretch them out over these parts (so you can do the mission partially - for example meeting the sister in Part 2, big battle in Part 3 or uncovering the conspiracy in Part 2, helping out of debts in Part 3) or make it so that you can make half of them in "Part 2" and second half in "Part 3";
- keep the dreams about gods in Part 2. Make them happen more frequently, have the MC be unsure if he went crazy or are gods really talking to him. Introduce the religion in the game - make it known if the "Average Joe" worships them or not and why. Have the MC talk about them with other characters. Make them react to it;
- Cultist is a cute gal, but her character could use some work. Right now it falls between "wet cardboard with the personality of yes-man" and "DMPC whose goal is to railroad the campaign to do one specific thing DM wants, even through players wants to do the other thing".
All in all, the art is still solid, the first part of the game is fantastic, but the latter could use some work.
Thanks so much for the warm words and for the criticism! No, the writer hasn't changed
In fact, you're falsely a little bit when you say that a lot of action happens in a short time. The third chapter is almost three hours long, but we agree that it's a lot of action all at once. First of all, shit in life happens all at once
And secondly, the reason for that is the underwater expansion. Initially we planned that the underwater adventure will last literally an hour, but then it happened that it will take 5-8 hours. After returning to the top, there will still be plenty of time for side quests of the other characters and the whole pirate theme before you decide to continue the theme of gods. Also, it's the cultist who says Fabian is the chosen one, but is that really the case?
Naturally both the cultist and the princess and Dolores will get their own time and development (they have side quests planned too). So you will have time to see the characters reveal.
From your suggestions:
- You'll have quite a bit of time on the surface before you decide to continue the main quest and finally find out what's up with these gods.
- The cultist appears in chapter 3.
- It's tricky here - the stalking/chasing plot could be the foundation in the background of the main action, but we'd have to rework a lot of things to make that happen. In addition, the sponsors of development on Patreon in the polls said that the story of Dolores is not so interesting to them. Therefore, it's counterproductive to give her a lot of time.
- Third-party quests for team members you can do at any time (before the underwater part or after), so here you decide in what order to pass.
- Now and so in the story there is information that in the world of the game there is knowledge and faith concerning the Conductors. There are cultists who worship them and ordinary people. The team gave their opinion on the idea of being friends with these gods.
- The cultist is one of those who are “drugged” and her character will change significantly or be finalized in time. Eventually she will reveal herself and get her time. Right now she is confident, feels involved and maybe even pretends to be someone other than who she really is.
So for now it works out like this:
Chapter 1 - becoming a pirate.
Chapter 2-- surviving on the island, improving relationship with the crew.
Chapter 3 - appearance of a chaser, meeting a cultist and a princess, choosing what to do with the artifacts.
Chapter 4 - underwater adventure and artifact retrieval, getting information about the gods.
Chapter 5 - solving the problems of the crew (and all the characters on board), the choice between calling the ancients or not. Finale
But since we've left a lot for part 5 (it's version 0.6.6f now and it's halfway through chapter 4, you can guess how much more is to come), hopefully we'll make enough content to get most of your questions answered.
